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I first heard about the open movement when my older sister was an undergrad at a public university in Brazil. She showed me , a Latin American publishing platform, with free access to scientific papers. Years later, when I became an undergrad, I learned that most scientific literature is behind a paywall and not accessible to Brazilian students like me.

I decided then to get involved in what I later learned to call the “open movement”, in the hope that the next generation of students and professionals will face less barriers to accessing research resources. As we learn how to be scholars, we find out very early on that producing new knowledge is expensive, and that most of us have limited access to resources to support it.

Sharing resources and products of the research cycle can reduce costs associated with repeating research unnecessarily. This also allows scholars to more easily build on others’ research knowledge. Open scholarship also enhances inclusion by promoting knowledge exchange between equity-seeking, underrepresented or excluded groups. 

What does open mean?

Open Scholarship practices optimize the impact of research through open access, open education, and open data. “Open” means that someone has thought about how other people could–or could not–re-use a product (expressed through an open license legal document). It also means that values related to equity, accessibility, inclusion, and diversity are playing a role in how this product was designed, produced, and shared. “Open” does not necessarily mean “free”, but it often means that you can re-use, remix or redistribute something, with proper attribution.

For example, instead of data from a research project only being used to write a publication, data can be deposited in a repository, allowing other researchers to use that data, avoid wasting resources, and speed up the production of new knowledge.

Note: data sharing does not override the right to privacy, and human data often cannot be shared publicly. There are ways to account for that and still be part of the open movement, as long as researchers are fully transparent about their processes. Interested in data sharing? Watch this .

A movement for change

The Institute for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology (INN) at 91��ܽ is leading an open scholarship initiative to support members of the SFU community to implement open practices in their scholarship. These open practices are based on six principles designed collaboratively by the SFU community:

1. Transformation through equitable practice of open scholarship
2. Open sharing of scholarly knowledge
3. Respecting participant autonomy
4. Respecting the dignity and privacy of research participants
5. Ensuring success through institutional commitment and support
6. Prioritizing translation with harmonized approaches to intellectual property

This investment in open scholarship reinforces SFU’s commitment to the , which SFU co-signed in 2024, and aligns with the University’s Strategic Research Plan for the years 2023-2028.

Now, 25 years after learning about the open movement, I am the open scholarship community manager with INN. I connect open scholarship practitioners at SFU ( and hubs at the Library, the Public Knowledge Project, ) through community-led events and programs to support students and faculty to use an “open lens” in designing their scholarly products.

At INN, we hope that in 10 years the SFU community will think of open scholarship as the default way to do things, and we will all be working together to share what we have the privilege to produce for the benefit of all. 

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